Moving on

I've been forcibly upgraded so I am now officially on new Blogger whether I like it or not. And then as soon as that happens, I might not be blogging for a while. I'm heading back to Ireland again.

Regular readers will know that I'm going to Dublin - and points west and south - to meet up with Anne McAllister and show her Ireland (well, some of it). She needs an Irish castle and to soak up the atmosphere and I need a break. Writing may not be very physical work, but it can be very draining on the brain. I'm hoping that time and space will recharge my writing cells and then the new Spanish hero Raul will stop dancing round in my head and actually let me get a lot more of his story down on the page.

Of course, I never ever travel anywhere without some way of writing even if it means resorting to the old-fashioned way of using a pen and notepad! Often the change to writing that way, together with the fact that I'm away from the demands of the phone and the email can clear a space in the clouded brain cells , make things fall into place, and mean that I start scribbling down ideas at a fast rate. The only problem I have then is trying to read my own writing to find out what I wrote!

As I write this I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that Anne will actually make it. The last I heard from her she was setting out for Chicago in a gap between snowstorms and I can only hope that she will reach Chicago by car, leave Chicago again by plane and arrive in Dublin tomorrow morning. Travel safely Anne!

The BM & I plan to arrive in Dublin tonight. We also plan on seeing the lovely Abby Green again, and hopefully the wonderful trish Wylie, having tea in Bewleys, Grafton Street, walking down O'Connell Street, staring at the

Millenium spike that has replaced the statue of a woman in a fountain that I used to know by the affectionate name of 'The Floozie in the Jacuzzi' - and talking - and talking - and talking. We also have some exciting plans for Thursday that could come under the heading research or just plain fun - I'll blog more about those if things go according to plan.

We aren't just staying in Dublin - Galway and Cork are on the itinerary too. I've never visited Cork so that will be a first.

I'll hope to find some access to the internet somewhere every couple of days and report in. Otherwise normal service will be resumed from the 22nd.

And if you're missing me and you need something to read in the meantime, you can always visit the new Harlequin Presents blog

and see what's happening. Or try Tote Bags 'n' blogs where there are always lots of interesting topics and a wide variety of authors posting them.

And I'll see you soon.